Woven chair material ID help

[Gene T]

Hello all, I am repairing 2 Danish made stools for my friend's parents. The top consists of this brownish twine woven across the rails. The twine consists of three twisted strands that are in turn twisted together to form a cord that looks a lot like strips of brown grocery paper twisted together. Is anyone familiar with this type of material? If I can ID it maybe I can order some replacement for the repair. Thanks for any help. Gene

[Andy Dingley]

Yes, it's very common.

Your seat sounds like a rush seat (NB - not "cane"). The best rushes to do this are still grown (mine come from Holland) but they're surprisingly expensive and they also only grow in short lengths. So working a rush seat is as much about continually working new rushes into the cord as it is about twisting this cord onto the chair frame.

So to solve both problems, much rush chair work is done with this paper rush. It comes on long reels of a constant size, so it's far easier to work with than real rush. Another option is "seagrass". This is hard wearing (also used for flooring) and easier to work with than rush, but a "natural" product unlike the paper cord.

need to find a supplier of chair caning materials and a simple book on the technique. I can't really suggest one for Hawaii or the USA though (I'm in the UK). You might find it through a wholesale upholstery supplier, but probably not - the cane and rush trade seems quite distinct from the stuffed fabric trade. I get mine from "The Cane Workshop" in Somerset

It's not hard to do, and doesn't even take that long. Tools are pretty simple too, although a good bench vice to hold the chair while you work on it will do wonders for your back - otherwise rig up a low platform (couple of stacked pallets) and stand the chair on that. Don't bend over the chair at floor height.

[Patriarch]

Andy Dingley wrote in news: [e-mail]:

There's also a product called 'danish cord', which may be a linen/cotton type of product. May also be made of hemp. Same suppliers should have it available.

Patriarch

[firstjois]

We used to do the Real McCoy with the rush in the bathtub to soak and a little clorox added if we left it too long. At one time the directions suggested slipping cardboard between the top and bottom layers (sides and front - maybe and back - maybe?) but we used thin wood - go through all that and put cardboard inside? Geesh.

We also varnished the competed seat I don't know if you'd do that with the Danish cord.

I think the only problem was if you didn't get the rush or what ever you used packed in tightly enough - then you'd get the 4 sections slipping away from the middle (with weight after it had been sat on a bit) and you could see through the chair seat.

Josie

[Robinson]

This is called "fiber rush" and you can get it from lots of suppliers. The best deal I found was at Chair Seat Weaving, link below:

kit to do one chair seat is $12.90 plus shipping, what you could do is get a kit and another lot of rush for $8.49, that will give you enough to do 2 chairs. You want to measure the diameter of the rush so you will know what size to order.

After reweaving the chair seats, you will want to put a coat of varnish or polyurethane top and bottom to help protect and strengthen the seat. I have a 100-yr-old ladder back chair I'm going to reweave this winter (when it's too cold to be in the shop!) -- the seat presently on it is fiber rush, and it's held up well. It would have held up better if a new coat of varnish had been put on it regularly....

Lorri